Bob Dylan: Nobel Prize In Literature

[Farewell]

Google realtime Dylan coverage link:

https://news.google.com/news/rtc?ncl...c7e857d198b2d2

[Frownland]

Not James Joyce
Not W.G. Sebald
Not Haruki Murakami
Not David Foster Wallace

But Bob ****ing Dylan. Did they do a merger with the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame or something?

[Blank.]

Originally Posted by Frownland

Not James Joyce
Not W.G. Sebald
Not Haruki Murakami
Not David Foster Wallace

But Bob ****ing Dylan. Did they do a merger with the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame or something?

Not too take away from Bob Dylan, he's a fantastic lyricist, but there are so many authors that are way more deserving.

[Chula Vista]

Pretty damn good stuff I'd say. Dylan certainly fits the definition of literature.
Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.

'Twas in another lifetime one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue, the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

And if I pass this way again you can rest assured
I'll always do my best for her on that I give my word
In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Not a word was spoke between us there was little risk involved
Everything up to that point had been left unresolved
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail
Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail
Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Now there's a wall between us something there's been lost
I took too much for granted, I got my signals crossed
Just to think that it all began on an uneventful morn
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Well the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much it's doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker he blows a futile horn
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love
Do I understand your question man, is it hopeless and forlorn?
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes
I bargained for salvation and she gave me a lethal dose
I offered up my innocence, I got repaid with scorn
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Well I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line
Beauty walks a razor's edge someday I'll make it mine
If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by David Foster Wallace

If what's always distinguished bad writing--flat characters, a narrative world that's clichéd and not recognizably human, etc.--is also a description of today's world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then [Bret] Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.

Postmodern irony and cynicism's become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what's wrong, because they'll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony's gone from liberating to enslaving. There's some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who's come to love his cage… The postmodern founders' patricidal work was great, but patricide produces orphans, and no amount of revelry can make up for the fact that writers my age have been literary orphans throughout our formative years.

We enter a spiritual puberty where we snap to the fact that the great transcendent horror is loneliness, excluded encagement in the self. Once we’ve hit this age, we will now give or take anything, wear any mask, to fit, be part-of, not be Alone, we young. The U.S. arts are our guide to inclusion. A how-to. We are shown how to fashion masks of ennui and jaded irony at a young age where the face is fictile enough to assume the shape of whatever it wears. And then it’s stuck there, the weary cynicism that saves us from gooey sentiment and unsophisticated naïveté. Sentiment equals naïveté on this continent.

You burn with hunger for food that does not exist.

A U. S. of modern A. where the State is not a team or a code, but a sort of sloppy intersection of desires and fears, where the only public consensus a boy must surrender to is the acknowledged primacy of straight-line pursuing this flat and short-sighted idea of personal happiness.

.

[Chula Vista]

The Nobel awards are always debatable. But I think this is well deserved based on how they described why they decided to give it to him.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

The Swedish Academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan, 75, "is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition." She drew parallels between his work and that of ancient Greek poets.

[grindy]

Seth Putnam or gtfo.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by Chula Vista

The Nobel awards are always debatable. But I think this is well deserved based on how they described why they decided to give it to him.

I can see where they're coming from but there are much more deserving people.

Plus, Homer did it first.

[Lisnaholic]

I respect the Nobel Prizes for science, because that's where they started out, didn't they? Plus, I know nothing about the people selected or their field, which facilitates uncritical acceptance of their selection.

As for literature, I think any prize for writing has to be taken with a big pinch of salt and there's always a case for saying that other candidates are more deserving; if only we could measure literary merit the way we measure the Men's 500 Metres in the Olympics. Until then, I don't take it too seriously but still say, "Well done, Bob!" After all, some of his lyrics are wonderful and if I have time I might go on a quotation binge later to "prove" it.

In the meantime, here's another report on the news, and our very own Dylan thread for people who'd like to read more:

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature - BBC News
http://www.musicbanter.com/country-f...bob-dylan.html

( Talking of reading more, of the six alternative authors put forward by Frownland and grindy, I have only heard of three and only read a book by one of them. )

PS: I was going to say "Welcome" to Farewell, but then I saw that he/she joined MB in 2009. With only 200 posts to your credit, it's time to step up your game, man!

[Ol’ Qwerty Bastard]

Originally Posted by Frownland

I can see where they're coming from but there are much more deserving people.

Plus, Homer did it first.

lol